The Oakland Raiders will be the subjects of this year’s Hard Knocks.
The NFL announced today that the NFL Films cameras will be in the Raiders’ camp for the show, which will air on HBO beginning August 6.
No teams wanted to do Hard Knocks this year, but NFL rules allow the league to force a team to appear if that team hasn’t done the show in the last 10 years, hasn’t made the playoffs in the last two years and doesn’t have a first-year head coach. The Raiders fit all three of those criteria.
And the Raiders should be a TV-friendly team, with coach Jon Gruden, new arrivals including Antonio Brown and Vontaze Burfict and three first-round rookies. Gruden didn’t want to do it, but the cast of characters his team has assembled will get the up-close-and-personal treatment on reality television this summer.